About Ivan Argote

Ivan Argote is infamous for his bold interventions into public spaces and cheeky appropriations of art history. Perhaps best known for his graffiti on two Piet Mondrian works at the Centre Pompidou—protected by glass, thankfully—Argote has also staged performances in which he attempted to give coins to passengers on the Parisian Metro, followed strangers around the streets of New York, passionately licked a metal subway pole, and danced to a song by The Cure in front of a famous painting by Kasimir Malevich. “My works are reflections about the way we behave,” he says, “about how we understand our close environment, and about how this close environment is related with history, traditions, art, politics, and power.” The Colombia-born, Paris-based artist transfers his same brand of iconoclasm shrouded in light irreverence into the gallery—recent works include a photo series of equestrian statues with their riders removed and a flaccid, collapsed recreation of the Luxor Obelisk.